Swiftcurrent Creek momentum

Atop her daughter's cinnamon-tipped crown she planted a fleeting kiss, and tucked her close against her side with her pale snout. With Durnehviir drifting off to slumber, she lifted her pretty crown to look up at her Alpha's face, the proud smile on her lips softening somewhat. Her tail flopped lazily in her contentment; this was not the perfect family unit that she'd dreamed of, but it was good enough. Maybe even better, when she and the pups had bonded better with their pack-mates.

She observed quietly as Scimitar interacted with the trio of boys at his feet, and fleetingly wrinkled her nose in distaste of yet another dominant display from Trajan. It was unusual for one so young to be such a bully, but for the time being she saw no need to correct his behaviour. He was too little to understand a scolding, but when he came of appropriate age it was something she would have to be putting a stop to, if it escalated any further.

"This one will be trouble," the agouti leader said, and Paarthurnax huffed softly through her nostrils. "He is his father's son, after all," she chimed, half-serious. She couldn't help but wonder if Shadow had been so bold as an infant much like Traianus was, and if he too regularly asserted dominance over the others of his litter. She knew that he'd loved his siblings dearly, however, so there was certainly hope that the little Angelus Mortis cub would grow out of it.

Silence lingered then, and Paar's copper eyes drifted between the three pups as they bickered among themselves presumably over who would be first to gain the attention of their visitor. She then focused on her Alpha, who fitted wonderfully into the scene by lowering his muzzle and allowing the youngsters to explore his face as they saw fit, and she felt her heart swell. He was a good wolf: kind and gentle and entirely selfless despite his bear-like appearance, and Paarthurnax couldn't help but find herself thinking, I could have loved you, perhaps.

But he had been Bazi's. He would always belong to Bazi, in her eyes, and so she shook the thought away and tried to ignore the sliver of guilt that came with it. Scimitar asked if she'd named them yet and, snapping back to reality, the two-toned Frostfur blinked dumbly up at him. "Sorry," she chirped, as though her mind did not just emerge from the dark place it had gone to, "day-dreaming." She laughed softly. "The little Shadow look-alike is named Traianus Marius, or Trajan for short. The pale boy is Julius Miraak, and that little ray of sunshine is Relonikiv Aetius." She hovered her nose above her daughter's sable back then, and smiled somewhat sadly: "the boys all have their father's surname - Angelus Mortis - and I gave her my own. It was tradition where I came from for pups to inherit the family name of their mothers, and so I asked Shadow that I continue that through our girls. He never approved. But now that we are separated, and there is only one... I named her Durnehviir Saarthal Frostfur."